Archeologists Find Artifacts At New Scudder Falls Bridge Site

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – An archeology project where the new Scudder Falls Bridge will be built has turned up artifacts dating back perhaps 2.5 millennia.

Archeology is just part of the overall bridge project, says Joe Donnelly of the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission. To make sure bits of the past are not lost to construction, test digs are done first, then more-involved excavations.

The current one, close to a ramp to the existing bridge, has recovered arrowheads, pottery shards and potentially net weights that go way back:

“There are some objects there that approximately by carbon sampling determined to be as far back as 500 B.C. What we’re in the process of doing is trying to put a puzzle together. The challenge is, it’s a puzzle where you don’t know what the picture looks like or additionally you don’t have all the people to put it together.”

Donnelly says a new dig will begin shortly on the Pennsylvania side, right where one of the new bridge supports will go.